Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-04-13
Suffering.

We hear great deal about how suf-
fering purilies the human heart. Per-
haps 1t does. We are not going to
dispute what is an accepted fact-that
is, not much. We are not prepared to
say that a lung fever, or sharp attack
OF meningitis. or a run of liver COM
plaint, judiciously applied, will not do
something toward turning the heart of
the hoary old sinner from his evil ways,
for people generally seem to think
favorably of sickness as an instrument
of salvation, and we should have all the
believers in creation in oGr hair II we
disputed it. So we let it pass.
But we do not believe that toothache
ever brought gentle feelings into any
human heart. We don't believe any man
is brought any nearer heaven by having
to lie awake night after night, with
steam-engine pumping away inside his
head, and every throb feeling rs if his
skull bone was being rent in twain, and
a red-hot iron was being thrust into the
cavity? We do not believe in chloro-
form, and creosote, and peppermint
essence, and hot drops, and pain killer,
and salt petre, and salt, and ginger,
and catnip, and oil of cloves, and cay
enne pepper, and Il hundred more things
of that kind in general use for the tooth
ache, Us means of grace! We don't
believe any man was ever converted
while suffering the pangs Of a regular
old-fashioned. genuine, jumping tooth
achel We don't believe there was ever
grace enough given any human being to
thank God for the toothachel If every
man has got over far enough for that,
he deserves to be translated, and done
with it.
Another kind of suffering, which we
do not believe puriiies to any great ex-
tent, is corn on the toe. Or, perhaps,
we had better put it corns. for when
man has one corn he generally has others
to keepit company, and they all ache in
capital letters.
Corns are clannish, and seldom exist
without the society of their kind. They
are social, and prefer aching in concert.
Now what man could have 4 heart
full of gratitude, when he had on a pair
of new boots, tight and hard, as new
boots mostly are, and pressing right
exactly on his sorest corn, and making
it feel as II some determined master
builder was boring hole into his toe
with an inch anger, and making all the
other corns sympathetic, until he
couldn't tell which ached the most, and
his dearest Mary Anne sitting opposite,
and talking to him about the weather,
and expecting him to admire the placque
she has painted, with two cats, and a
screech owl, and bunch Of pond lilies,
mixed up In artistic confusion-yes, we
want to know where is the man who
could be happy, thankful, and polite,
under such circumstances?
There are some kinds of suffering
under which the noblest soul that ever
lived could not be patient-under which
saint himself would wriggle. and think
of some bad word that would apply.
And it is pleasant to think that all
suffering is not of divine origin-for it
comes from tight boots, and too much
confectionery, and stomachs overloaded,
and nerves overworked; and the Provi-
dence which we are all so fond of ar
raigning, under the most trivial circum-
stances, has nothing whatever to do
with 1t.